House Deliberates On Additional N200b On Infrastructure

House Deliberates On Additional N200b On Infrastructure

● Supplementary Appropriation Bill scales 1st reading

By Jonas Happy

Rivers lawmakers will today, Monday 3rd July, return to the chamber of the House of Assembly to continue deliberations on a new bill before them.

They will resume debates on the Supplementary Appropriation Bill 2023 forwarded to the House by Governor Siminalayi Fubara.

The Government of the Rivers State is seeking to spend an additional two hundred billion naira on the execution of key projects.

Last week, the supplementary bill underwent first reading on the floor of the House.

Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Martins Amaewhule who read the content of Sim Fubara’s request to lawmakers revealed government is asking for a little more than N200,000,000,000 to pursue its development agenda.

He said the passage of the bill would give impetus to the execution of projects which were not originally accommodated under the 2023 Appropriation Law.

It is not clear if Fubara’s request for more funds to embark on his own projects as distinct from that started by his predecessor would be dealt with by the committee of the whole House, or if the House in its wisdom will send the bill to an appropriate House Committee to handle before returning conclusions reached to the floor.

Whatever the mode of debate in the legislature will be, Rivers people are waiting to see how the new House deals with the issue.

The new projects conceived by the Fubara administration, coming after the exit of the government of Governor Nyesom Wike, provides an early indication of the high priority that the new State governor intends to place on development, particularly on  the expansion of the State’s infrastructural base.

It equally reveals that under the Fubara administration,  emphasis is to be placed more likely on capital expenditure which has the potential for creating more wealth and job opportunities in sharp contrast to raising the bar in terms of recurrent expenditure.

In all, it is proof that in pursuit of an ambition under the new Rivers vision to turn the State into a high brow economic destination, the government headed by Fubara will stop at nothing in order to enhance the pace of structural transformation.

Port Harcourt is at the heart of the hydrocarbon industry and expert projections in some quarters indicate that the city will grow into one of Nigeria’s mega cities in the future.

No doubt, the decision to ask for more funds long before the administration is due to present its own budget is likely to raise debate in the court of public opinion between those who think the new projects are desirable and those who would argue streneously that the State is overreaching itself when it comes to the provision of  infrastructure.

In a democracy, this should be expected says the Editor-in-Chief of the Port Harcourt Telegraph, Rt. Hon. Ogbonna Nwuke.

“There will certainly be a debate. That’s the beauty of democracy. The issue is whether it will be expedient at this time to embark on the ring road and other projects or differ them.

“Looking at global trends in terms of widespread inflation, it would be cheaper in my view to embark on the Fubara projects now instead of procrastinating. Honestly, procrastination will be dangerous.

“We need to prepare for the future to come; we need to spend our way out of poverty as a nation and a State and create those avenues which give birth to new jobs in the blue-collar and management cadre; create  wealth which will grow GDP and create the multiplier impact that we desperately need for the Rivers economy to flourish.”